


If Nothing Else

by YourPalYourBuddy



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, M/M, Minor Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Sam and Nat adopt a dog, from a tumblr ask
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-25
Updated: 2017-02-25
Packaged: 2018-09-26 18:56:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9916424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YourPalYourBuddy/pseuds/YourPalYourBuddy
Summary: It’s a lot more work than both of them had thought. Phil doesn’t go outside easily, he doesn’t seem to know that jumping on people (even highly trained super-soldiers) is a no-no, and for the life of them they can’t figure out a way to stop Phil from overturning his water dish every few hours. They’ve had a substantial increase in the number of socks in their laundry hamper.______Sam and Nat adopt a puppy. Sam's POV: close third person.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ohemdee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohemdee/gifts).



> This is a little dark at one point; mentions are made to ptsd and infertility and nightmares.

____________

 

It’s Nat’s idea.

“Are you sure?” Sam asks, looking around. “We forgot to do the dishes for three days last week. Every week, actually.”

Nat crouches to pick up a goldendoodle and smushes her face into its fur. It licks her cheek. “Those’re dishes. This is a puppy,” she says. 

Sam scratches the puppy behind its ear. It’s very, very soft. He presses their noses together and he knows Nat’s looking at them both with crinkled eyes. She holds his hand.

He takes a breath.

He says, “How much?”

______

 

It’s a lot more work than both of them had thought. Phil doesn’t go outside easily, he doesn’t seem to know that jumping on people (even highly trained super-soldiers) is a no-no, and for the life of them they can’t figure out a way to stop Phil from overturning his water dish every few hours. They’ve had a substantial increase in the number of socks in their laundry hamper.

______

 

Phil loves the park, so when their schedules line up Nat and Sam take him to chase frisbees and squirrels. Phil loves Steve the most (“What’d you ever do for him?” Sam asks, complaining; his socks are wet again. Steve just shrugs) because Steve throws frisbees the farthest.

One day Steve throws a frisbee into a tree, and Phil barks at it and a squirrel pokes out to see what’s going on. Sam has to carry Phil around the park five times before he calms, and even then he only stops barking because Nat gives him jerky.

“He might be hopeless,” Bucky observes, holding a huge ice cream cone in one hand and Phil in the other. There’s a splatter of rocky road on his shirt.

Nat says, grinning, “I’ve always liked hopeless cases.” She puts her arm around Sam’s waist and looks up at him. Her eyes crinkle. “Why d’you think we started dating?”

“Oh, that’s cold,” Sam says. But he’s laughing along with Bucky.

______

 

At night when he can’t sleep Sam wonders how much of this is about not being able to biologically have kids.  They’ve talked about it a little but only in the most glancing of terms, and even more vaguely about adoption. He thinks they’d be okay parents. At the very least, they’d know nothing’s getting to their child.

But at the same time, adopting as superheroes is not the easiest thing. Steve and Bucky have been on the list for years, and Sam knows how much it cuts them up to be rejected time and time again. They check off every box—being superheroes, they know how to protect a child, they’ve got the money, they’ve got a stable home—but, being superheroes, there isn’t really ever a safety guarantee. For all anyone knows, Steve and Bucky could adopt and then be killed in some accident, and their kid would be parentless again.

Dogs are a different story. Nat’s curled around him, and he’s got his arm around her (she called being little spoon tonight), and Phil kicks in his sleep by their feet. Sam pulls her closer to him and she sleepily mumbles something about a puffer fish running a driving school. Phil whines at something in his dream.

Dogs are different. If nothing else, they can have this.

______

 

“He’s looking better,” Steve comments one day in June. They’re at the park again, a rare day when the four of them aren’t on call unless absolutely necessary, and Phil just came when called for the eighth time.

“Isn’t he?” Nat says. “Isn’t he the best puppy you’ve ever seen?” She fluffs Phil’s fur and he licks her palm and she laughs.

She’d had a nightmare that morning. She’d slipped out from bed at some point before six; he’d found her and Phil on the couch watching Say Yes to the Dress around six fifteen. 

Sam draws a pattern on her back. “He is the best puppy.”

He thinks Bucky and Steve exchange a worried look, but he can’t tell.

They ask him about it later.

“Is she okay?” Bucky asks, his voice low. “Are you?”

Steve crosses his arms in concern, waiting.

Sam says, “It happens fairly often. For both of us. Hers are quieter than mine.”

Steve does the thing where his eyebrows pinch together and make his smile a million times sadder than usual. He takes Bucky’s hand and squeezes Sam’s shoulder. “If you want to talk,” he says.

“Thanks.”

______

 

“Chinese?” Sam asks over the phone. 

There are explosions on her end. “Sounds good,” she says, a little breathless.

He puts the remote down and sits up. Phil jumps into his lap, and he pets him absently. “Nat, are you okay?”

“I’ve got it handled.”

“I know. Wasn’t the question.” 

Phil noses his hand; he’d stopped petting him. Sam closes his eyes and scratches behind his ear. “Nat?”

Gunshots. “I’m fine,” and she sounds exasperated enough that he believes her. “Just a minor drug bust.” More gunshots. “Okay, maybe a major one.”

“Be safe,” he says, because it has to be said.

“I will be,” she replies.

They hang up. He orders Chinese.

______

 

Every other Friday is their date night, which used to mean candlelit dinners in a new city every time. Now, however, they’ve gotten into the habit of taking Phil to a picnic in the park when the weather’s nice enough.

It’s only fair to repay him, Sam thinks. Nat blows bubbles for Phil while Sam watches from the blanket. It’s only fair. They haven’t had as many nightmares recently; Sam’s most recent one was on the Fourth of July (fireworks), but he hasn’t had any since then. He’s pretty sure it’s thanks to Phil.

Nat’s have decreased in frequency too, and he knows it’s thanks to Phil. She’s so much calmer now. 

She’s laughing and the sky’s so blue, and they’re together, and they can have this. He smiles.

“Come play!” Nat calls, her eyes crinkled, and he hops to his feet.

He runs toward them and Phil yips at him and jumps at his chest, and Sam catches him and Nat all at once. She shrieks, laughing, and Phil barks madly. Sam pats Phil on the head.

Sam can hold them both for a while, probably, but Nat shifts to look at him and they tumble to the ground before he can readjust.

“Sorry,” Nat says, her voice breathless. She landed on his chest.

Phil sniffs around Sam’s head as he says, “Nothing to be sorry for.”

Nat smiles. She snuggles close to his chest, and they would’ve fallen asleep like that if Phil hadn’t peed on Sam’s shoes.

______

 

Sam hasn’t told her yet. He watches as Nat alternates between baking a pie and throwing knives at their dartboard, and Steve and Bucky are coming over soon, and he’s just realized he hasn’t told her yet.

Her fifth knife shivers in the bulls-eye before she says, “What?”

“What what?” He hurriedly pushes off from the counter to check the fridge. Phil trots up to him, and he pets him.

Nat does her superspy thing where she makes her voice all neutral and narrows her eyes a little. She opens the oven and says, “You’re looking at me funny. Not the good kind of funny, you know, the ‘oh, teach me your ways’ funny. Weird funny.”

“I love you,” Sam blurts out.

The kitchen grows heavy somehow.

He looks at her, and she’s biting her lip.

Great, he’s messed up—

“What?” He thinks she might be about to cry; her voice sounds tight. Phil plods over to her now and she picks him up, even though he’s too big now to be properly picked up.

Sam closes the fridge and leans against it. “That’s what I was thinking,” he says, and it’s a lot to keep his voice stable. “I hadn’t told you, but I wanted to. I love you.”

“Sam,” Nat says, and she’s definitely crying a little now. But her eyes are crinkling. “We’ve been dating for seven months.” She closes the distance between them, still carrying Phil, and says, “I figured. And you talk in your sleep.”

“Oh.” He rubs the back of his neck, sheepish. His heart is beating very, very fast.

Phil whines until Nat brings him close enough to lick Sam’s hand. She’s smiling. There are still some tears in her eyes, but he thinks they’re happy tears.

The timer goes off for the oven. Nat hands him Phil and pulls out the pie and tilts her head. It’s wonky; one half of the crust crumbled in the oven somehow, and some of the filling spilled over the edge.

“It’s just like us,” she comments. Then: “When are Steve and Bucky coming over?”

He checks the clock on the stove, heart still pounding. “In five minutes.”

The doorbell rings. Phil charges to it like he’s going to break it down.

“We brought pizza!” Bucky calls. They hear something plastic shuffling outside, and then Steve’s voice.

“And thumbprint cookies, and soda!”

Nat looks at the pie and then at him and quirks a smile. “I love you, too,” she says, and runs over quickly to kiss him, and then goes to open the door. 

Steve and Bucky almost get stuck in the door (“Get off me,” Bucky says, and pretends to elbow Steve in the ribs) and set their bags on the counter, Phil wagging his tail behind them. Sam scoops him up even though he’s too big, and Nat comes up next to him. They listen to Bucky tell them about a plum pie recipe and Sam takes her hand. He presses a kiss to her palm, and she leans into his side.

If nothing else. If nothing else, he thinks, their kitchen full of food and friends, his arms full of her and Phil; if nothing else, this is pretty damn good.

____________

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to my lovely friend Marlee for the ask :) She's writing an amazing Star Wars fic write now, if you wanna check it out: [ The Quickest Draw](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9623402/chapters/21741557)
> 
> Also: if you're wondering, Phil's named for Phil Coulson, who by all accounts deserved better.
> 
> I'm on tumblr if you wanna say hi: [loveslightwings :)](https://loveslightwings.tumblr.com)
> 
> Thank you for reading! :)


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